World Chefs: Writer shares cooking tips from top chefs in new cookbook

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Dana Cowin, the editor-in-chief of Food and Wine magazine, shares lessons and tips she learned from some of the best chefs in the world in her first cookbook, "Mastering My Mistakes in the Kitchen."

Cowin, 54, has been the editor of the influential culinary magazine for 20 years. Some of the 65 chefs featured in her book were given their first national exposure in the monthly periodical.

The New York native, who has been dubbed the first lady of food, spoke to Reuters about kitchen disasters and rating chefs as teachers.

Q: What are the best tips you received for this book?

A: The most important lesson is to focus. Your cooking will be radically improved when you focus from the beginning of the dish to the end. ... A patient cook will be a good cook. If you are a good timekeeper, you will also be a good cook.

Q: What was your worst disaster in the kitchen?

A: It was probably when I almost burned my kitchen down. I had a butterflied lamb. I had it in a broiler and flames started coming out of the oven. What I learned is that if you have meat that you are broiling in the oven close to a heating coil, you need to be sure there’s not a lot of fat on the meat.
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